Recipients' Attitudes Toward Welfare

Authors

Kirk W. Elifson, Georgia State University
William S. Little, Georgia State University
William Chamberlain, The Atlanta Urban League

Abstract

While the general plight of welfare recipients has long been recognized, little or nothing to date has been ascertained concerning their views toward the system that largely determines their lives. Many recipients find themselves manipulated by a less than personalized bureaucracy but few researchers have sought to examine the experiences and attitudes of these recipients toward that system. Given the recent figures which indicate a "welfare explosion" (Piven and Cloward, 1971), and the vast expenditures for public assistance programs (Skolnick and Dales, 1969:5), the lack of systematic empirical research in this area is disconcerting. Such information should be of considerable value to the practioner within the social welfare context. Differing policy orientations frequently are implemented without the guidance of relevant baseline information. Further inquiry into the strains inherent in the system would certainly lend itself to a more efficient and workable model. Our purpose here is to carry out such an analysis.

Recommended Citation

Elifson, Kirk W.; Little, William S.; and Chamberlain, William (1974) "Recipients' Attitudes Toward Welfare," The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 1: Iss. 4, Article 3.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15453/0191-5096.1051
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol1/iss4/3